Streaming media pioneer Netflix set out to become the home of the cord cutting movement. Offer a better experience than Cable to a lower price.
Things have changed significantly since then. Now, there are numerous players on the market, e.g., Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV, Paramount, Prime Video, HBO Max and many more. All want a piece of the cake.
Things have turned for the worse for viewers. The rise of streaming services has spread films and shows across the networks. While most offer a core set of films and movies, including original productions, other content often moves between services.
It may happen that you watch Part 1 of a show using one service, but need to switch to another service to watch the second part. There is also little hope that you may watch all movies of an actor at a single service. Even worse, older content may not be available at all.
Ads and price jumps
Many streaming services have increased the price of a subscription in recent years or announced plans to do so. Netflix, for instance, increased the price in several regions in 2022 and may increase prices again according to reports.
The introduction of ad-powered plans is another recent development. Netflix and Disney launched plans with ads already. These cost less, e.g., Netflix’s Standard with Ads is available for $6.99 compared to $15.49 for its cheapest ad-free plan. Amazon will push advertisement to all Prime Video users, unless they subscribe to an ad-free option.
Ad-powered plans are cheaper, but they deteriorate the viewing experience, especially if ads are shown in the middle of streams. Still, they appear to be lucrative to streamers. First, because they unlock access to new viewers, and second, because it is highly lucrative.
In short: ads are being pushed and prices are increasing. Most streaming services will likely have introduced an ad-powered plan in the coming years.
What you may do about it
Internet users have one main option to deal with the development: to limit subscriptions. Instead of subscribing to a service for an entire year or longer, viewers could subscribe for only one or two months per year.
Streaming services hopping is a valid option to have access to all content, albeit not at the same time. This is not particularly problematic for most viewers. The majority of streaming services fail to release enough content to warrant a yearly subscription.
Subscribe to Netflix for one month and cancel afterwards. Subscribe to another service in the next month, and cancel again. It may not be as comfortable as having subscriptions for all services all the time, but you will save hundreds of Dollars per year doing so.
A full year Netflix Standard plan subscription sets you back $185.88 in the United States. Add yearly subscriptions to Disney+, Amazon Prime and some other services you like, and you pay hundreds of Dollar per year.
When you subscribe to a single month and then cancel, you end up paying a lot less.
There is also the possibility to completely dispense with subscriptions. Films and shows may be rented at public libraries, or from friends or colleagues. DVDs may not offer the best quality, but they are incredibly cheap on marketplaces such as eBay.
A problem looming at the horizon
Stream subscription hopping works only if the streaming services offer monthly subscription periods. There is a chance that this could change in the future to support only longer subscription periods.
No streaming service has announced plans of this kind though.
There is still the option to subscribe to none of the services, if that happens in the past. While the end of discs is also looming, it won’t happen in the coming years.
Ah. good old American capitalism and corporate greed!
But look on the positive side. Where else can a person live forever if he can’t afford to die?
I disagree with you on the subject of DVDs being cheaper on eBay Martin. The discs maybe, but the delivery charges are exhorbitant, primarily because they’re being sold by individuals who don’t qualify for bulk postal rates like businesses do and are forced to pay standard consumer delivery rates. Or at least that’s how it is in the Netherlands where a single DVD sent by post will set you back €4,25 for domestic rates and €8,25 for international.
I used to buy DVDs myself from marketplace resellers, but the downside is that you have to wait 3 weeks or more for delivery and shipping charges are calculated per disc. So if you buy say 3 DVDs for which the delivery charge is £2,00 per individual disc, the reseller will charge you £6,00 even though they’ll be sent altogether in a bubblepack envelop which may burst in transit. Also, they send them by the cheapest method possible which means there’s no tracking number issued with the sale. In addition, you’re reliant on the honesty of the reseller as to the condition of the disc and that it’s the correct Region for your part of the world when it arrives i.e. PAL for Europe for example and not an NTSC DVD that won’t play in European hardware which is configured for Region 2 discs (had that happen once, but got my money back from Amazon after having to go through their AI which is not designed to be user friendly).
So I finally succumbed and admitted defeat and went back to buying new DVDs from Amazon UK for which the shipping charge is £10,57 per delivery + £0,99 per kilo. I figured that if I buy a minimum 10 DVDs at a time the shipping charge will only add £1,05 per disc which is acceptable to me. When I do that I notice Amazon UK splits delivery into packages of 3 discs and dispatches them that way which is OK by me. They always arrive within 2 days in any event.
But I notice more and more new releases are only available on Amazon Prime these days which is a great shame. Fortunately though there are still enough titles I want to buy available on DVD.
I guess it depends on how shipping is handled in your country / region. Here in Germany, you pay about $1.50 for uninsured shipping. Add the $1 or so that you pay for many DVDs on eBay, and maybe buy multiple from the same vendor, and you get good deals for good movies. If you buy in bulk, you pay about $6 for a package that can weight up to 25 kilograms and that fits dozens of DVDs easily. But I agree, if shipping is expensive in your region, eBay may not be the best option.
Other options include flea markets, thrifting, garage sales, or sales at stores.